Silence; the Second Coming
by mistressfyre
Summary: The Senshi of Destruction is ressurected, Rei's in love...you'll just have to read it (rated R for later chapters) r & r please!
1. Echoes of the Past

Rei stared vacantly at the building before her. Mugen Hospital...she though, shivering as she spoke. Mugen...the name's harsh syllables left a bitter taste on her tongue. A very familiar taste, but she couldn't distinguish it.  
  
"So this is Usagi's infamous 'new job'?" she expressed her thought in words, sarcasm slicing through the melodic notes of her voice. The image of Usagi even setting foot into as frail and as cautious a place as an actual hospital made Rei cringe. Tsukino Usagi, a nurse at Mugen Hospital? She hadn't believed it at first. Yet here she was, employed for a full month with no follies, no clumsy accidents to which she was so prone.  
  
Rei entered the massive building, coming immediately face to face with an all too familiar grin. "Ami!!!" she exclaimed, thrilled to meet up with her old, dear friend. She hesitated suddenly, guessing, from Ami's bewildered expression, that she was unrecognized. Mizuno Ami squinted from behind her thick spectacles, her brilliant azure eyes intently studying the familiar composition.  
  
"Rei!!!" she cried upon recognizing the face. It took her much too long, she realized, considering her friend had changed little in appereance since her high school days. Her countance was still magestic, blossoming with pride and dilligence of character. Her breathtaking raven hair flowing gracefully down her back. It was hard to tell where it ceased, merging with the black sweater that clung to her slender body. Her lively violet eyes sparkled with the same passionate emotion that they'd possessed years ago. Her figure had matured, rounding out into the delicate curves of womanhood, but that was to be expected.  
  
Her own appearence had transposed quite a bit since the two had last come in contact. Her thick, ravishing blue hair no longer ceased at her neck. It dangled cheerfully past her shoulders, coming to life with the tiniest shake of her head. Her stunning blue eyes twinkled with  
  
the efervescence of dreams. Indeed, she was no longer the plain-faced braniac she'd been in high school. She had developed into a stunning young woman, much the idol of several male doctors. But Ami's heart had been captured by one sole lover, her career.  
  
The two long lost friends embraced wholeheartedly, eager to catch up on one another's lives. So much had happened since they last crossed paths in high school. Rei proceeded to explain to her every detail of the life she's led the past six years, but she was soon interrupted.  
  
"Rei!!! Ami!!!" a shrill, bubbly voice exploded in greeting. It was none other than Usagi, adorned in a pristine white nurse's uniform and a large grin. "Hello!" she exclaimed with her typical sunny demeanor, completely oblivious to the current reunion.  
  
"Usagi," Rei began, taking on a matronly tone, "You didn't tell me that Ami-chan works here!"  
  
"I thought you knew!" Usagi replied, her face reddening. (Rei still failed to see how she'd managed to become a nurse.) Rei emitted a small groan and turned to embrace her best friend Usagi. Usagi had invited her to visit, but Rei had other reasons to justify her visit. She turned to Usagi, the concern in her eyes speaking a silent question.  
  
"Your grandpa's in room 221," Usagi declared, suddenly tender. She nodded gently toward the corridor on her left.  
  
"Thanks," Rei responded quietly, the tension in her voice seeping into the atmosphere around her. Wordlessly, she proceeded down the dimly lit hallway. The silence surrounding her was defening, a cold, dead silence. She hated hospitals bitterly. She hadn't been able to set foot in one since what had happened the previous year. (Yuchirou, I love you...why had she waited so long to tell him that?)  
  
"Watch where you're going!" Rei opened her eyes, the collision jolting her out of her trance, to find herself staring up at a tall, rather masculine young woman. Indeed, if Rei hadn't heard her speak prior to this, she would've perhaps suspected her a very handsome man.  
  
"I-I'm sorry..." Rei stuttered, suddenly aware that she was far past her grandfather's room. The woman's piercing black eyes shot out at her from beneath reckless golden bangs, scrutinizing her.  
  
"You look lost," she stated before Rei could utter another word. "Do you know where you're going?"  
  
The woman's concern should've been comforting, but the superiority in her tone infuriated Rei.  
  
"I'm not lost," she retorted, pride consuming her. "I know where I'm going just as well as you."  
  
Much to Rei's surprise, the woman's lips curled into a smile. Although Rei had disliked the woman at that point, her smile was full of an intriguing charm. "I see," she replied, that same mysterious amiability leaking into her voice. Rei turned to walk away, but the woman's words echoed behind her. "Perhaps you're more lost than you realize...Rei."  
  
Rei halted in her tracks. How did you know my...a wave of familiarity swept over her...the woman's voice...her manner, her countenence...she was sure...she whirled around quickly. The corridor was empty, as if it had always been so. No trace of the ambiguous blond woman with whom she'd just spoken.  
  
She shook her head. "I'm losing it," she reassured herself. And there was every reason she should be a little disoriented. She'd been working double time at the temple, and now her grandfather, her only real family in the word, had become fatally ill. And yesterday had been the anniversary of Yucchirou's death.  
  
Her life had almost been different, inches from perfection. She'd nearly been a happily married wife, a nurturing young mother, and had a successful career in addition. She'd been so close, but one single moment had shattered that ideal into a thousand pieces. He had proposed to her, stooped on his knees as though he were before a goddess, begging her to become his wife. Her reply had been so enthusiastic that he was never able to finish his sentence. The situation was purely utopian. He owned a fresh, promising record label and they'd planned to run it together, by one another's side. It was the kind of life Rei had pined for in the deepest areas of her own heart, bursting with the joys of love and acheivement. But a singular moment had robbed her of that dream forever.  
  
He'd been on his way back from an interview with some impressive new talent. (He'd boasted to her attentive ear that this group would bring publicity to the entire company.) On his course back home, a fierce storm had taken Tokyo by surprise. His car skidded off the road into a ditch, igniting as its corroded metal raked the pavement. His life had left him within minutes. When her grandfather had pierced her heart with the news, she'd refused to admit it true. ("He's not dead...this has to be a joke...he always was a...")  
  
Soon after, her own spark and passion for life began to fade. She released ownership of the record company to Yuchirrou's younger brother, Tetsuou, and returned to her faithful home, the Hikawa Shrine. She repeated to herself stubbornly that it was the will of fate that her dreams remain unfulfilled. Her destiny was to devote herself and her affection to the tireless life of a priestess. She'd avoided dating and anything of the sort, and she intended to do so for the rest of her life. My heart belonged to the shrine now, she'd lied to herself and everyone else, I don't need romance to complete it. Besides, there was no man she would ever find, she'd convinced herself, that could fill the vacuous space left in her heart. Yuchirou had taken a piece of it with him to the grave.  
  
Shoving her introspect aside, she pushed open the door to room 221. Her grandfather greeted her with a meek hello. He lay helpless and vulnerable on a colorless, discomforting mattress, hooked up to more machines than Rei was able to count. She shuddered at seeing him like this. He was usually erupting with energy and vitality, bustling about to complete the day's work, saving just as much time for fun. Now, he looked only restless and dejected. Rei winced, using every last ounce of strength she had to hold back her tears.  
  
Rei carelessly noticed that they weren't alone in the cramped, cubicle-like quarters. A single wall divider stood between them and the grievous world of another patient. Curious, Rei peered into the other half of Room 221. A frail, pallid young girl lay barely conscious on the bed, her ghostly lips scarcely emitting breath. A weary, flaxen-haired young man slumped over the child, affectionately stroking her forehead.  
  
"Hotaru," he mumbled gently, running his hand through the girl's limp black hair. He glanced up, his tender eyes of brown velvet gazing at their unexpected company, and Rei fell instantly in love. 


	2. Wind and Wave

A crisp, refreshing wind shook the city of Tokyo, battering against the window where the woman known to this world as Ten'ou Haruka stood observing. The hour was late, and the city was far into the night's slumber, but Haruka's eyelids wouldn't shut.  
  
"Hino Rei..." she spoke the name that had been lingering her mind since her encounter at Mugen Hospital that afternoon. It's syllables were so comfortable to her mouth, yet arose alarm in her heart.  
  
In the bed beside her, Kaiou Michiru woke to find her partner absent. She sat up and glanced at the window, her gentle turquoise eyes directly meeting Haruka's own razor-sharp black ones.  
  
"It's windy tonight," Haruka spoke quietly, almost contemplative. Silently, she guided her intense gaze back to the window. These late night reveries were not unknown to Haruka, she enjoyed the world most when she was the sole person aware of it. However, something she sensed in the air this particular night distinguished it from the others. It's beginning anew, she thought.  
  
"Haruka," Michiru, the woman who had been Haruka's faithful companion for a large portion of both their lives, spoke gently to her, "Come back to bed. You're working tomorrow."  
  
Haruka ignored her logical concern, choosing instead to plunge further into her own intuition. "I met someone today," she spoke suddenly, her gaze still focused on a world invisible to anyone else's eyes.  
  
"You meet people everyday," Michiru replied intelligently. "You're a lawyer." Haruka disregarded the comment and continued, the trance consuming her whole body.  
  
"Hino Rei." Silence befell the entire room as the name was spoken. Haruka turned suddenly to face Michiru, her eyes speaking what her lips could not. Michiru gasped.  
  
"But, we were told that...that when we next encounter the forces of the inner planets..."  
  
"I know," Haruka cut her off.  
  
"Oh God..." Michiru hid her face in her hands, her graceful body trembling as she wept.  
  
"It was inevitable," Haruka declared solemnly, secretly requesting the strength to restrain her own tears. She didn't want the past to return any more than Michiru did. The physical, as well as emotion turmoil had almost killed both of them. She didn't want to fight that battle again.  
  
"We have to fight," Michiru stated quietly, her tear-stained face turning to Haruka's. "It's our duty as soldiers of the outer solar system."  
  
"But what is our goal?" Haruka inquired, suddenly furious at the world for letting such a thing happen. "To protect a crybaby princess whose throne is handed to her? It doesn't sound like a mission to me."  
  
"Ruka..."  
  
"No, I don't want to sacrifice my own life and yours as well for something I don't even want to be a part of!"  
  
"That's selfish..." Michiru mumbled, speaking to herself, so it seemed. "...but true. We obtain no benefit from this cause. But, the first time our goal was to locate the Talisman's, which we found sealed into our own hearts. Was that not a wasted effort? But we fought. We found our Messaiah, and now we must protect her."  
  
Haruka gazed at Michiru, biting her lip, holding back tears. "I know, and I intend to fight...but...I just don't want you to get hurt." Michiru took her hand.  
  
"Don't worry. If we go down fighting, we'll go down together."  
  
Through the tears now streaming down her face, Haruka smiled. 


	3. Guilt is a Powerful Weapon...

Meioh Setsuna paced back and forth outside of the massive building known as the Tokyo Courthouse. Her triumph in this particular case was imperative. She hadn't come out victorious in almost a year, and her income was dramatically suffering the effects of this. When it came time to defend her client she'd always been plagued by some sudden paralysis of nerves...perhaps, more accurately, an attack of conscience. The magnitide of this particular case, however, was enough to either make or break her career as a defense attourney. She prayed it resulted in the former. Harried by the thought, she retrieved a small, maroon handkerchief from the breastpocket of her black business coat. Wiping her drenched brow, she contemplated the few facts she knew about her client. Tomoe Souichi--the name struck her ears like a bell each time she heard it, but she was unable to figure out why...But before she could become deeper emerced in her train of thought, the doors to the courtroom flung open, beckoning her in to perform the task at hand. She entered the intimdating, overcrowded room, inhaling a deep breath as she seated herself.  
  
A scrutninous sidelong glance at the sallow faced, weary looking man she was assigned to defend only strenghtened her suspicion that she had, in fact, met him prior to the case. His blanched skin was stretched taut over the triangular frame of his face, giving it a cadaverous appearence, accompanied by restless eyes that showed the numerous years that his body did not. His tousled hair was almost devoid of colour, nearly matching the eggshell hue of the flimsy cotton blouse that hung from his slight form. He looked as though he hadn't slept in days. 'Not that anyone in his right mind would,' Setsuna thought, slightly bemused, 'not with charges like that resting against him.'  
  
She reviewed the little she did know about the man at the heart of this controversial predicament. Doctor Tomoe Souici had been accused of assuming very close alliance with some of the darkest powers known to man. Allegedly, he had channeled this power into his only living offspring and used her to help bring about the uprising of an evil regime. Surveying the defendent closely, Setsuna found it diffucult to believe him capable of such atrocities. 'Maybe he should plead temporary insanity,' Setsuna mused to herself, realizing how thoroughly he looked the part.  
  
Her vagabonding attention snapped back to the present as the icy, resounding voice of the judge echoed through the courtroom.  
  
"Tomoe Souichi," he spat the name as if its mere utterance had poisoned his tongue, "you have been charged not only with highly dangerous dark activity, but also manipulation of your own flesh and blood in order to carry out these insidious acts, both very heinous crimes. How do you plead?"  
  
Setsuna bit her lip in apprehension. She had obviously not underestimated the severity with which this man's crimes were viewed by the public. She had also miscalculated the harsh, eagle-eyed sense of judgement so commonly attributed to this particular magistrate, a man by the name of Iwakura Shigeru.  
  
Judge Iwakura was a tall, overbearing superior, who managed to be unsettlingly intimidating often by saying nothing at all. His short, closely trimmed black hair was decorated with specks of grey, and his close- set eyes were like hard, miniscule beads of onyx stuck deep in his square face. They glinted with the merciless sense of conviction acquired from several years of delivering justice to the damned. Setsuna almost wished her client would claim insanity, instead of the well-rehersed arguement of innocence they had prepared. Judge Iwakura, Setsuna decided, was not a man you wanted to grapple with...  
  
"Well?" The biting voice of the magistrate sliced into the silence. It dawned on Setsuna that the entire courtroom had been shrouded in a heavy quiet for several seconds now, awaiting the convicted's response.  
  
Doctor--no, Mister Tomoe raised his colourless face slowly, his fragile chocolate eyes meeting Iwakura's stony black ones. Setsuna held her breath...  
  
"Guilty," he whispered, his hoarse voice cracking. Setsuna flinched. Guilty??? What had happened to the defense she had lost precious sleep preparing? This sudden admittance of guilt would certainly do nothing for her failing career.  
  
"Ha!" Iwakura exclaimed triumphantly, slamming his palm down on the podium in front of him in the manner of one who had just one an arm wrestle. "Smart enough not to try and fool me, eh, Tomoe? Very wise of you."  
  
"You don't honestly think I confessed out of fear of you, do you, Iwakura?" Tomoe scoffed, his broken voice still straining. "Guilt is a very powerful weapon. And it's not as if it would matter whether or not I claimed innocence," his voice suddenly became disturbingly quiet, "It won't bring Katsumi back to life, will it, Iwakura?"  
  
The magistrate's hardened face suddenly adopted the sickening hue of spoiled milk. Fuming with rage, he pounded his fist on the podium, hiding the mixture of grief and utter lividity that now consumed his features. The courtroom's inhabitants squirmed with the obvious discomfort of someone accidently intruding upon a sexual scene. After a moment, he regained his composure, turning his acidic eyes back to the shruken man that was still eyeing him warily.  
  
"No, perhaps it won't," he declared, hatred sizzling in the notes of his speech, "but I can still have the pleasure of watching the blood gush from your crumpled little corpse."  
  
"You son of a bitch," breathed Tomoe, "It wasn't intentional!"  
  
"Be that so or not, my only daughter is dead, Tomoe, slaughtered by your foul, unfeeling selfishness. And if I can sentance the bastard responsible for polluting the streets of our city with the blood of children to a slow and agonizing execution, then God damnit, I'm going to make use of that opportunity." His tone of voice was more controlled now, yet the words escaping his lips contained more venom than Setsuna had ever heard in a courtroom.  
  
"Which reminds me," Iwakura continued, a twisted smile distorting his thin mouth, "what is to be done with that daughter of yours?" His eyes darted to the frail, slender child occupying the seat next to Tomoe, trembling with soundless sobs at her father's unfortunate fate. Her enormous, melancholic eyes now grew even larger, staring at Iwakura with the naiive curiousity of a child who'd been beaten and hadn't a clue why.  
  
"You have obviously proven yourself unfit for parenthood. If no suitable home is found within thirty days, this poor excuse for a child will be handed over to the local orphanage."  
  
Tomoe's eyes widened. "Wait! You can't--"  
  
"I can do anything I damn well please, Doctor," Iwakura spoke the title with mock reverence, "and don't you ever forget that."  
  
"But you don't understand!" Tomoe pleaded, his calm demeanor vanishing. "If she is left without my supervision--"  
  
"I've heard enough of you arrogance, Tomoe!" Iwakura barked. "This child is no longer yours to manipulate." He turned to the two burly officers stationed at the corner of the room. "Get him out of my sight." The officers seized Tomoe roughly, restraining him with handcuffs, and escorted the now frantic criminal out of the massive iron doors.  
  
"Now, if that is finally finished, Ms. Meioh, please take this child to the Tokyo Municiple Orphanage. She will remain there until, and if, a foster home is found for her."  
  
Setsuna rose, but was halted by a gentle, yet all-too-familiar voice.  
  
"That won't be neccessary," the voice spoke softly.  
  
Setsuna turned abruptly, her crimson eyes falling upon none other than Kaioh Michiru and Ten'ou Haruka.  
  
"We'll take her from here." 


End file.
